Section 3: HEAT TREATMENT

Introduction
Objectives of Heat Treatment
Heat Treatment is the controlled heating and cooling of metals to alter their physical and
mechanical properties without changing the product shape. Heat treatment is sometimes
done inadvertently due to manufacturing processes that either heat or cool the metal such
as welding or forming.
Heat Treatment is often associated with increasing the strength of material, but it can also
be used to alter certain manufacturability objectives such as improve machining, improve
formability, and restore ductility after a cold working operation. Thus it is a very enabling
manufacturing process that can not only help other manufacturing process, but can also
improve product performance by increasing strength or other desirable characteristics.
Steels are particularly suitable for heat treatment, since they respond well to heat
treatment and the commercial use of steels exceeds that of any other material. Steels are
heat treated for one of the following reasons:
1 Softening
2 Hardening
3 Material Modification

Common Heat Treatments

Softening
Softening is done to reduce strength or hardness, remove residual stresses, improve
toughness, restore ductility, refine grain size or change the electromagnetic properties of
the steel.
Restoring ductility or removing residual stresses is a necessary operation when a large
amount of cold working is to be performed, such as in a cold-rolling operation or
wiredrawing.
Softening processes include:
Annealing Full Process,
Spheroidizing,
Normalizing
Tempering austempering and martempering

Hardening
Hardening of steels is done to increase the strength and wear properties. One of the prerequisites for hardening is sufficient carbon and alloy content. If there is sufficient
Carbon content then the steel can be directly hardened. Otherwise the surface of the part
has to be Carbon enriched using some diffusion treatment hardening techniques.

Material Modification
Heat treatment is used to modify properties of materials in addition to hardening and
softening. These processes modify the behavior of the steels in a beneficial manner to
maximize service life, e.g., stress relieving, or strength properties, e.g., cryogenic
treatment, or some other desirable properties, e.g., spring aging.
For the purpose of this presentation we will examine Softening Annealing and Direct
Hardening in relation to modifying the microstructures which were formed in Figure 9.
Other heat treatment processes can be discussed at a later date.

Softening Annealing
Full Annealing
Full annealing is the process of slowly raising the temperature about 50 C (90 F) above
the Austenitic temperature line A3 or line ACM in the case of Hypoeutectoid steels (steels
with < 0.77% Carbon) and 50 C (90 F) into the Austenite-Cementite region in the case
of Hypereutectoid steels (steels with > 0.77% Carbon).
It is held at this temperature for sufficient time for all the material to transform into
Austenite or Austenite-Cementite as the case may be. It is then slowly cooled at the rate
of about 20 C/hr (36 F/hr) in a furnace to about 50 C (90 F) into the Ferrite-Cementite
range. At this point, it can be cooled in room temperature air with natural convection.
The grain structure has coarse Pearlite with ferrite or Cementite (depending on whether
hypo or hyper eutectoid). The steel becomes soft and ductile. This process is illustrated in
Figure 11.

Figure 11

Direct Hardening
Hardness is a function of the Carbon content of the steel. Hardening of steel requires a
change in structure from the body-centered cubic structure found at room temperature to
the face-centered cubic structure found in the Austenitic region. The steel is heated to
Autenitic region. When suddenly quenched, Martensite is formed. This is a very strong
and brittle structure. When slowly quenched it would form Austenite and Pearlite which
is a partly hard and partly soft structure. When the cooling rate is extremely slow then it
would be mostly Pearlite which is extremely soft. This relationship between structure and
rate of cooling can be studied for a given steel with the help of a set isothermal
transformation curves which are known as TTT (Time-Temperature-Transformation)
curves. Such a curve is shown in Figure 12. It indicates the time necessary for
transformation to take place and the structure which will be produced when austenite is
super cooled to any predetermined transformation temperature.
Figure 12

Figure 13 represents four curves which have been produced by varying the cooling rate.
Curve A represents a rate of cooling of approximately 5C per second such as might be
encountered during normalising. Here transformation will begin at X and can be
completed at Y, the final structure being one of fine pearlite. Curve B, on the other hand,
represents very rapid cooling at a rate of approximately 400C per second. This is typical
of conditions prevailing during a water-quench, and transformation will not begin until
220C, when martensite begins to form. The structure will consist of 90% martensite at
1l0C and so contain a little retained austenite at room temperature. The lowest rate, at
which this steel (of eutectoid composition) can be quenched, in order to obtain a structure
which is almost wholly martensitic, is represented by curve C (140C per second). This is
called the critical cooling rate for the steel, and if a rate lower than this is used some fine
pearlite will be formed. For example, in the case of the curve D, which represents a
cooling rate of about 50C per second, transformation would begin at P with the
formation of some fine pearlite. Transformation, however, is interrupted in the region of
Q and does not begin again until the Ms line is reached at R, when the remaining
austenite begins to transform to martensite. Thus the final structure at room temperature
is a mixture of pearlite, martensite and traces of retained austenite.

Figure 13
The TTT curves illustrated in Fig. 12 are those for a steel of eutectoid composition. If the
carbon content is either above or below this, the curves will be displaced to the left so
that the critical cooling rate necessary to produce a completely martensitic structure will

be greater. In order to obtain a structure which is entirely martensitic the steel must be
cooled at such a rate that the curve representing its rate of cooling does not cut into the
'nose' of the modified 'transformation begins' curve in the region of 550C. Obviously, if
the steel remains in this temperature range for more than one second, then transformation
to pearlite will begin. Hence the need for drastic water-quenches to produce wholly
martensitic structures in plain carbon steels.
For a steel containing less than 0.3% carbon the transformation-begins curve has moved
so far to the left that it has become impossible to obtain a wholly martensitic structure
however rapidly it is cooled. Large quantities of ferrite will inevitably precipitate when
the transformation-begins curve is unavoidably cut in the upper temperature ranges. The
resulting structure will be most unsatisfactory since hard martensite will be interspersed
with soft ferrite.
Fortunately, the addition of alloying elements has the effect of slowing down
transformation rates so that the TTT curves are displaced to the right. This means that
much slower rates of cooling can be used, in the form of oil- or even air-quenches, and a
martensitic structure still obtained. Small amounts of elements, such as nickel, chromium
and manganese, are effective in this way and this is one of the most important effects of
alloying.

Hardenability
Hardenability, which is a measure of the depth of full hardness achieved, is related to the
type and amount of alloying elements. Different alloys, which have the same amount of
Carbon content, will achieve the same amount of maximum hardness; however, the depth
of full hardness will vary with the different alloys. The reason to alloy steels is not to
increase their strength, but increase their hardenability the ease with which full
hardness can be achieved throughout the material.
Usually when hot steel is quenched, most of the cooling happens at the surface, as does
the hardening. This propagates into the depth of the material. Alloying helps in the
hardening and by determining the right alloy one can achieve the desired properties for
the particular application.
Such alloying also helps in reducing the need for a rapid quench cooling thereby
eliminating distortions and potential cracking. In addition, thick sections can be hardened
fully.

Summary
Steel is a combination of iron and carbon. In its softened state, the base is a matrix
composed of simple iron molecules (ferrite), in which are suspended molecules of iron
carbide (cementite). When steel is heated to prescribed temperatures, then cooled at a
specific rate, it undergoes physical internal changes which manifest themselves in the
form of various micro-structures such as pearlite, bainite, and martensite. These microstructures (and others) provide a wide range of mechanical properties, making steel an
extremely versatile metal.